Our Baby is 1!

We celebrated Brooke's 1st birthday today! (We had angel food cake with real whipped cream and super yummy strawberries!!!) I've always considered the first birthday to be a major milestone...for both the baby and the parents :) It feels good to reach the one year mark, yet my heart still aches as I watch her struggle to learn to use her hands, to sit up, to roll over, to crawl, etc. Still, she is a fighter and continues to make progress, and for that we are so grateful. While the seizures she experienced at birth and/or the medication she is currently taking to prevent further seizures seem to really have an affect on her motor skills, her smiles abound. She is truly a blessing in our life. We love her soooo much! (As you can see below...she gets lots of kisses!)

"Crafting it Forward"

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! This offer does have some limitations:
1. You will not know what it's going to be, and there are no guarantees that you will like what I make! It may be something simple and small or I may go crazy and do something amazing.
2. It’ll be done this year. Translation: you may be waiting a little while.
3. Most importantly, you must offer the same deal on your blog - the first 5 people to comment on your blog get something made by YOU!
Ok...so, I'm doing this "x2"....because I commented on my sister's and my sister-in-law's blogs...so the question is....will 10 people really comment on my blog? :)

This is GREAT!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1099849580145

Validation Video

If you haven't seen the video above, you should watch it...and remember YOU ARE AWESOME!!! :)

Brenden and Elise participated in a bi-stake trek this year. They had a wonderful experience...maybe I'll get them to post more details about it. In the meantime, here's some photos...the first is the morning they left for the trek. The following two are the photos taken on the "home stretch" as we greeted them at the "end of their journey". What fun!

No, Ammon didn't go on the trek...but he was so excited to see Brenden, that he ran up to Brenden as he was approaching and Brenden gave him a high five and then picked him up and carried him the rest of the way back....so sweet.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is one reason why we love our van! Before Christmas, we went to see the Lights at the Zoo!...and each of our kids was able to bring one friend (except Brooke)...the 9 of us plus 6 friends = 15! Every seat in our van was filled...and we had a GREAT time :) Here's photo of everyone in the van, followed by the photo with Santa at the zoo.

I think Santa may have been a bit overwhelmed by all of us. Sorry Santa....

We had Christmas "just us" this year for the first time since Brenden and I have been married. Although we missed being with extended family, we sure enjoyed our time together without too many "places to be." We went carolling to Brenden's coworkers and several of our neighbors (The weather was a very nice 65degrees that evening!) We enjoyed lights and "snow" at the Zoo. (Chet discovered when he tried to catch a snowflake on his tongue that the "snow" was made of some sort of bubbly soap stuff!) And, we had fun making Gingerbread houses and playing games and watching WALL-E. I'm afraid amid all the fun, we didn't remember to take our traditional family photo by the tree....so, here's one of the tree :)

This was Brooke's first Christmas! She has been such a blessing in our lives this year! Her sweet smile and calm personality have brightened each day. She's beginning to laugh a lot now...and that keeps us smiling too! She's doing well...still figuring out her hands, but can sit up all by herself now!

We hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! All the best to you!

Chet recently participated in the Christmas parade. He is a member of the KKids Club (service organization sponsored by the Kiwanis Club) which had a float in the parade. The camera man got a great couple of shots of Chet :) (5:01, 5:21 and 5:42 roughly are the times when you can see Chet on the following link...which is about in the middle of the video clip.) Enjoy!

http://static.mgnetwork.com/jbf/media_path/images/xmas_parade/081207_aik_parade_4.html